The alleged US plane bomber met radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, after being recruited in London, a senior Yemeni official has said.
Well, well, well ....
Last week US security official John Brennan said there were "indications" of direct contact between the two men.
Quelle surprise
Mr Awlaki was linked to an attack by a US army major on the Fort Hood base in November, in which 13 people died.
Yemeni Deputy PM Rashad al-Alimi also said bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab used explosives from Nigeria not Yemen.
| "That's why they didn't go off as planned. Our Yemeni bombmakers are held to a much higher standard," he added. "Really." |
Mr Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, but the plane landed safely after crew and passengers overpowered him.
In a separate development, Mr Alimi said that five Germans including three children and a Briton kidnapped in Yemen six months ago are still alive. He said northern Shia rebels were co-operating with al-Qaeda over the kidnap.
'Not just a cleric'
Mr Alimi told journalists that Mr Abdulmutallab "joined al-Qaeda in London".
The suspected bomber studied at University College London (UCL) from September 2005 to June 2008 and was president of its Islamic society in 2006-07. But UCL has said there is no evidence to suggest Mr Abdulmutallab was radicalised while he was there.
Mr Alimi also said the suspect met Mr Awlaki in the cleric's ancestral home province of Shabwa. Mr Awlaki, a radical American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent, has been linked to other attacks, including that carried out by US army Maj Nidal Malik Hasan at the Fort Hood army base in Texas in November.
"Mr Awlaki is a problem. He's clearly a part of al-Qaeda in [the] Arabian Peninsula," Mr Brennan, who is UN deputy national security adviser, told CNN last week. "He's not just a cleric. He is in fact trying to instigate terrorism."
Some reports say the cleric was killed just before the Christmas attack, in an airstrike on a suspected al-Qaeda base. However, friends and relatives say he was not harmed in the raid.
'A certain shock'
Confirmation of the meeting between the two men comes as the White House plans to publish a declassified account of the Christmas Day plot.
In an interview for USA Today newspaper, National Security Adviser Gen James Jones said people would feel "a certain shock" that clues about Mr Abdulmutallab's role were not acted on. President Barack Obama "is legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behaviour that were available, were not acted on", he said.
Mr Obama is expected to address the nation about the incident later in the day and unveil new steps aimed at avoiding further terrorist attacks.
Sometimes, it's nice to be able to attach a name to your target. This guy wants to be Bin Laden 2.0. I vote we make him just as dead.